Contributor: Nolan Howell
Saturday night was filled with quality combat sports action as the UFC took over Fox and Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton rematched on Showtime, but HBO took another direction from the Fantasy Sports Casino in Indio, Calif. as they featured two super featherweight bouts with guaranteed action and they did not disappoint. In the main event, Francisco Vargas aimed to defend his WBC World Super Featherweight title against the up-and-comer Miguel Berchelt, while Miguel “Mickey” Roman and Takashi Miura looked to entertain and reemerge as contenders in the division.
Berchelt upset the veteran Vargas after the two went after it for the first half of the fight. It was all downhill from there as Vargas sustained a cut to the eye and became more of a punching bag for target practice for Berchelt. Unable to defend himself to the satisfaction of the referee, Vargas was halted in the eleventh round to give Berchelt the stoppage victory. Berchelt moved to 31-1 overall.
In the opener, Miura and Roman delivered the brutal brawl expected of them. Miura was able to take a few to the head to open up to the body as is his signature and it paid off in the eleventh. With the wind-up of a pitcher and the power of a home run hitter, Miura punished the liver of Roman with a left hook that left him flat on the mat. While Roman was amazingly able to answer the count from the referee, he was stopped the next round in a fight that will fly under the radar, but should be considered for boxing’s fight of the year.
When all was said and done, Berchalt was rumored for a fight with Vasyl Lomachenko at the end of the boradcast, but Miura also made a case for a fight with the main event winner and it makes sense considering the billing.
-Nolan can be reached @undercardnolan or at [email protected]
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